On our trip to the Met one thing that particularly stood out to me was the fact that artistic designs followed conquers to the many places they went to. One example of this was when Alexander the Great traveled to Asia he brought Greek artists with him. So the use of sea serpents like in the artwork Lunette the Serpents can be found in artwork all the way in Pakistan. We see sea serpents in the dish with marine creature and couple. Its interesting because Pakistan is a landlocked country so obviously the Greek artists influenced Pakistan’s art because the people who lived there were never exposed to marine animals.

At the Rubin Museum we saw an exhibit which has the Fifty Four Paintings that show the Purification of the All Bad Rebirths Tantra. This set of paintings shows the stages of the ritual of the All-Knowing Buddha Vairochana. There are six groups of paintings within the set but the third stood out to me the most. The third step of this ritual is “Imagining Oneself As The Deity” which contain leaves 17-29. Leaf 17 shows how the man following this ritual sits on a lotus and above him is the Vairochana. The man is envisioning himself as a deity and is reciting the mantras. This painting really stuck out to me because of the beautiful colors and I thought it was interesting how one of the steps in because a deity is imagining yourself as one. Also I like how the Vairochana is above him in a circle as if the man is day- dreaming because this is how we depict someones inner thoughts in pictures today.

When I went to the met museum I saw these two artworks. The one on the left is influence of roman culture and the one in the right is influence of Middle East India culture. The one on the left because of it influence shows a more masculine and worshipping/ fighting stand. The one on the right in more feminine and at peace. The different is in their hand and there meaning of the way they are. But both show that there is some type of power and respect in their culture.

Vitaliy Koretskyy

This is one of the fifty-four paintings of the All-Knowing Buddha Vairochana. In this painting visualization of Buddha is in much greater detain than commonly seen in Tibetan Art. The-All Knowing Buddha is shown at the top center of this painting on a blue lotus surrounded by a golden sun disk. Another figure on the painting is Practitioner and the main reason for this is to display Indian-inspired red monastic robes. The drape of is garment, revealing the right shoulder is and chest, is characteristic of Indian monastic dress.

Vitaliy Koretskyy

On the picture below is a statue called “Standing Buddha” and it was created somewhere during late 6th and early 7th centuries. That period in Indian art culture was called Gupta period and its stylistic traits were drawn from Mathura and Sarnath, which were the most important art centers in India at the time. This statue is very reminiscent of the statue of Monkey King that we saw in class. Both are made from metal and share the same body structure, have similar posture and jewelry is also present on both of them.

The second statue is called “Standing Bodhisattva Maitreya” or another name is “Buddha of the Future”. It was created in Pakistan around 3rd century. This sculpture looks much more richer then “Standing Buddha” and reminds me of how men dressed in Ancient Greece and it was actually influenced by Greek art.

Marble Statue of a Kouros (youth)

Greek , Attic, ca. 590-580 B.C

Said to be from Attica

This statue is one of the earliest statues of the human figure. This statue has a lot of Egyptian art influence, however, it is a greek statue. What makes this statue so interesting is the petite and feminine feature on the man statue. Normally in the Greek culture we see men portrayed as stong, muscular and brave.

Marble Statue of Bearded Hercules

Roman, Flavian period A.D 68-98

This is a statue of Hercules. He has the skin of the lion wrapped around him as a sign of victory when slaying the lion.  This is a more typical form to depict the man. In this statue Hercules is in a contropasto pose. He is muscular and the lion skin wrapped around him depicts him as strong and muscular.

These different statues depict man in different forms. This represent what was valued or should be valued in men at these different times. This gives an inside look into the different depictions of masculinity in different cultures.

At the Met, these two sculptures appeared to be most intriguing to me because of the contrasting difference between the states of each subject.

The first statue, featuring the subject in the colorful clothing is called the Arhat (luohan), dating back to the Liao dynasty (907–1125). This sculpture seemed interesting to me because it appears that this man has not yet reached his full potential of awakening, as popularly showcased in many forms of Buddhist art. He appears to have such a determined facial expression and i thought it was interesting to see the work and diligence required to reach that goal, especially since it took many Buddhist monks numerous years, often times their whole lives, to reach that state, if they were able to succeed at all. Also, according to the Metropolitan Museum’s background description, this piece is intended to symbolize the waiting for a future Buddha to come down to them and to save them from being persecuted by other people/religions.

The second sculpture, featuring a subject carved out of stone, appears to be much more evolved than the first. This is made evident through his facial expression and body language, but it mostly stands out to me because it has multiple heads and arms. Typically, this is intended to mean that the subject has reached such a high level of awareness and self-realization that it can theoretically be at multiple places at one time, which indicates one of the true powers/advantages of attaining full enlightenment.

At the Rubin Museum, there were a myriad of different sculptures and works of art representing symbols and idols pertaining to Buddhist practices. This statue shown above is representing one who has finally attained the everlasting goal of enlightenment. This is made evident by various signs in the statue’s body language, with the most obvious and immediate indicator being the sitting position of the subject. This is known as the “lotus position,” which is a commonly used sitting position for Buddhist meditation, which is one of the primary techniques/practices for clearing one’s mind entirely and becoming enlightened. The subject’s facial expression also appears to be extremely relaxed, and even happy – also made evident through the position of the subject’s hands, calmly resting on his own lap. All of these positive signals are being displayed to represent the belief that once enlightenment is achieved, the subject has reached the ultimate goal of self-realization and awakening.